Novel Exciter Controller and Its Application in Rotor Position Estimation for Aircraft Three-Stage Wound Rotor Synchronous Starter-Generator

Accurate rotor position estimation plays an important role in the start control for the aircraft three-stage Wound Rotor Synchronous Starter-Generator (WRSSG). In this paper, a novel exciter controller and rotor position estimation method for aircraft WRSSG were proposed. The exciter controller consists of a three-phase full-bridge converter and a full H-bridge converter, and it is used to inject high frequency voltage into the permanent magnet pre-exciter to estimate the rotor position in the starting mode, and regulate the field current of the main exciter to control the output voltage of the main machine in the generation mode. The proposed rotor position estimation method has the advantages of high stability and high estimation accuracy. Simulation analysis verified the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed exciter controller and rotor position estimation method.

I. Introduction

Due to the advantages of small volume, light weight, simple structure, and high integration, aircraft integrated starter–generators have become research hotspot in the field of aviation power system, with the rapid development of aircraft electrification [1]. Three-stage wound-rotor synchronous starter-generator (WRSSG) has the advantages of high reliability and mature power generation technology, which makes it great potential candidate for the aircraft integrated starter–generator system [2], [3].